Trinity University receives its biggest gift ever

Trinity University has announced the largest gift in its 155year history, $26.5 million from the D.R. Semmes Foundation to expand hands-on learning and research.

The newly named D.R. Semmes School of Science will honor the memory of Douglas Ramsey Semmes, an oilman who died in 1976. He created the foundation, which has helped the university for more than 70 years.

“The sciences are at the core of a broad liberal arts education, and Trinity fundamentally understands this. We are creating the next generation of scientists across an array of disciplines that will address the world’s major questions,” said Tom Semmes, the foundation’s president.

Trinity President Vanessa B. Beasley said the investment “accelerates our goal to deliver the best undergraduate science education in the United States.”

“Trinity and the Semmes Foundation have long been partners in opportunities for undergraduate science education, and this historic investment will help us advance our mission to deliver world-class teaching and increase students’ access to research opportunities in STEM,” Beasley said.

It ensures the university “continues to offer an exceptional education in the sciences through world-class faculty, curricula, and state-of-the-art facilities,” Trinity said in a recent release posted on the university website. Trinity’s faculty includes the Semmes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, an endowed position.

Through the years, the Semmes Distinguished Scholars in Science have developed and collaborated on undergraduate research projects and “have proven to be innovative leaders who bring strong communication skills as scientists,” the university said.

Kylie Moden, a 2017 graduate, computer science major and former Semmes scholar quoted in the release, has worked as a product manager at Microsoft, Code.org and DoorDash. She said she realized as a first-year student that “Trinity was funding its sciences and valued its technology, where other liberal arts schools weren’t.”

“Sometimes, you might forget the humans on the other side of the software. Trinity showed me it cared about the human aspect of the sciences,” Moden said.

“In so many ways, the Semmes Foundation has directly aided in the future and continuing success of all of the students I have had the privilege of mentoring at Trinity,” added current Semmes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Jason Shearer.

In addition to providing dedicated funding for undergraduate research opportunities and supporting faculty development, the gift will endow the dean and two faculty positions at the newly named school.

The school houses the departments of biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering science, Earth and environmental geosciences, mathematics, physics and astronomy, psychology and three interdisciplinary programs: biochemistry and molecular biology, mathematical finance and neuroscience.

Trinity dates to its 1869 founding in the Central Texas town of Tehuacana. It moved to Waxahachie in 1902, then relocated to San Antonio in the early 1940s before work on its current campus began in the 1950s.

Trinity University Kylie Moden, a 2017 Trinity University graduate and former Semmes Foundation scholar, applauds the sciences program.